Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The reference point (analogous to the origin of a Cartesian coordinate system) is called the pole, and the ray from the pole in the reference direction is the polar axis. The distance from the pole is called the radial coordinate, radial distance or simply radius, and the angle is called the angular coordinate, polar angle, or azimuth. [1]
As φ has a range of 360° the same considerations as in polar (2 dimensional) coordinates apply whenever an arctangent of it is taken. θ has a range of 180°, running from 0° to 180°, and does not pose any problem when calculated from an arccosine, but beware for an arctangent.
The polar angle is denoted by [,]: it is the angle between the z-axis and the radial vector connecting the origin to the point in question. The azimuthal angle is denoted by φ ∈ [ 0 , 2 π ] {\displaystyle \varphi \in [0,2\pi ]} : it is the angle between the x -axis and the projection of the radial vector onto the xy -plane.
x is the argument of the complex number (angle between line to point and x-axis in polar form). The notation is less commonly used in mathematics than Euler's formula, e ix, which offers an even shorter notation for cos x + i sin x, but cis(x) is widely used as a name for this function in software libraries.
Some of these formulas are expressed in terms of the Cartesian expansion of the spherical harmonics into polynomials in x, y, z, and r. For purposes of this table, it is useful to express the usual spherical to Cartesian transformations that relate these Cartesian components to θ {\displaystyle \theta } and φ {\displaystyle \varphi } as
The formulas involved can be complex and in some cases, such as in the ECEF to geodetic conversion above, the conversion has no closed-form solution and approximate methods must be used. References such as the DMA Technical Manual 8358.1 [15] and the USGS paper Map Projections: A Working Manual [16] contain formulas for conversion of map ...
While one might describe the motion of a particle in a rectangular box using Cartesian coordinates, it is easier to describe the motion in a sphere with spherical coordinates. Spherical coordinates are the most common curvilinear coordinate systems and are used in Earth sciences, cartography, quantum mechanics, relativity, and engineering.
The use of LaTeX in a piped link or in a section heading does not appear in blue in the linked text or the table of content. Moreover, links to section headings containing LaTeX formulas do not always work as expected. Finally, having many LaTeX formulas may significantly increase the processing time of a page.